Spooktacular Stories!

Kindergarten

This week we read the story Where’s My Mummy? By Carolyn Crimi, an Illinois author. Little Baby Mummy wants to play one more game of "hide- and- shriek" before going to bed. While searching for his Mama Mummy he encounters creatures of the night. When a scritchy- scratchy sound scares baby Mummy, Mama Mummy comes to the rescue. After the story we made a text to self connection by discussing what our moms do when we are scared. Students were able to checkout other stories written by the author during checkout time.

First Grade

First grade students were introduced to a story read online. The students were engaged in the book Stellaluna by Jannell Cannon and read by Pamela Reed. Before reading we discussed how people feel about bats and the difference between books online and movies. Afterwards some us changed our opinions on bats. Before the story we thought they were all scary and mean, but after reading we learned that there are over 800 different kinds of bats and only 3 of those are the scary "vampire" bats we hear about in scary stories. We also learned that the online book used pictures from the actual story, but made them come to life. In the story Stellaluna immitates birds so we made a connection by playing charades and acting out animals for our friends to guess.

Second Grade

Second graders listened to our book this week on a CD. We heard the book Tell Me Another Scary Story but not too scary written and read by Carl Reiner. Afterwards we used our listening skills to play a game of Halloween bingo. We had to listen carefully to a picture description and find the matching picture on our game board. Then we decoded a secret message from the teacher!

Who will you vote for?

This week we started looking at the election process and the two presidential candidates. Elizabeth Ide will be holding their own school election on November 2nd. Every student will get the chance to vote for the person of their choice, but first we had to learn about them!

Kindergarten

We looked at pictures of the two presidential candidates and learned their names. We discussed how on election day we will be voting for our favorite person. We cast our vote by circle the persons picture on our ballot. Then we read the story If I were President by Thomas Kingsley Troupe. In the library we were able to checkout books on our current President as well as past Presidents.

First Grade

First graders learned about the election process and the two presidential candidates. Then they listened to the story My Teacher for President by Kay Winters. After reading we discussed the different ways our teacher (specific to each classroom) would make a great president. Then we did some self to text connections by writing a few sentences about what it would be like if we were President. All of the class had the honor of being displayed this month in the hallway and hanging in the library for all to read and see.

If I was President I would give you 20 minutes
of recess and let you spend time at gym and give you some extra supplies and I'll be nice.

Second Grade

In second grade we focused on details of the Presidential candidates and the responsibilities of a citizen to vote. We learned that we vote for a president every four years and we must be 18 to vote in the official election, however we still get to vote in the Ide election. Then we played a jeopardy game on Obama and Romney as well as election vocabulary. We had a terrific time working as teams to compete and try to win the game!

Come back on November 2nd to see who Elizabeth Ide students voted as President!

Fall is here!

Fall has arrived in the Ide library! Ms. Maier and Mrs. Schlagbaum (Miss Shawen) have been pulling all of the fall and Halloween stories for the children to enjoy! They can be found displayed throughout the library.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten students this week listened to the story The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall. The students connected their prior knowledge of apples, pies, and trees to predict what the story would be about. Students knew that pies do not grow on trees, however apples do. This delightful story follows an apple tree throughout the seasons of growing. Soon the apples are ready to be picked and apple pie is to be made!

First Grade

First grade students listened to two stories this week. The first story The Little Orange House was acted out by Mrs. Schlagbaum. As the story was read a piece of paper was cut by the main character, a witch, into a house. The witch was searching for a house, when luck should have it a piece of paper fell at her feet. She folded the paper in half and cut a roof out of it. Then she made a crooked door (to fit her hat), a window (to let in light), and a small door for the ghost friend she makes at the end. When you open to see the inside of the house the children were delighted to find a surprise of a jack-o-lantern face!

The second story the first graders listened to reinforced sequencing skills. The story There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Bat by Lucille Colandro had the same pattern as the books with similar titles (There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly). The students were asked to sequence the items in order at the end of the story and then to read the sentences they created with these objects. For example: The lady ate a goblin.

At centers first graders were able to retell the story of the witch and create their own pumpkins as well as play a sequencing game related to the Old lady story.

Second Grade

Second graders heard the story The Biggest Pumpkin Ever by Steven Kroll. This adorable story was about two mice who fell in love with the same pumpkin. The mice, unknowingly, work as a team to grow the biggest pumpkin in the town. The first mouse, Clayton, would like to enter the pumpkin into a contest. The second mouse, Desmond, would like to carve the best jack-o-lantern ever! Once the mice find out they have been working together to grow the biggest pumpkin they make a deal to help each others dream come true. After the story the students worked on a storyboard. The storyboard helped the students lay out the order of the book in beginning, middle, and end. The students had to organize their thoughts through a simple layout of four boxes. The parts of the book were discussed as a whole group before the students went to the tables to complete their own storyboards. This is a technique they can use when writing their own creative writing story as well as a self checking technique to make sure they have at least three parts of a good story!

Below are samples of the student's work.